Two hospitals run by the Priory Group have been placed in special measures in a fresh controversy over state-funded private contractors’ treatment of people with mental illness or learning disabilities.
At one of the hospitals, inspectors found some patients had taken to wearing trainers in bed in an effort to stop nursing staff jabbing their feet with keys to wake them up.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found both hospitals – Priory Hospital Blandford in Dorset and Kneesworth House in Royston, Hertfordshire – unsafe and uncaring and declared them inadequate. They have been given up to six months to show improvement or face closure.
Dr Paul Lelliott, the CQC lead for mental health, said: “If urgent improvements are not made to ensure people are safe, we will take action to prevent the provider from operating these services.”
The Priory, which is owned by Acadia, a US chain of clinics, is the UK’s leading provider of private mental health care. This year it closed another hospital in High Wycombe after it failed an inspection and it was fined £300,000 over the death of a 14-year-old girl at a fourth unit in East Sussex.
Secret filming by BBC Panorama at a hospital in County Durham run by another provider, Cygnet, which is also US-owned, exposed bullying and abuse of patients with learning disabilities and autism. Ten staff were arrested.
The CQC said that at Blandford, which caters for children and young people with learning disabilities or autism as well as a mental health disorders, inspectors found a high level of violence among patients and assaults on staff. Bricks and nails were used as weapons, patients felt unsafe and staff appeared unable to cope, resorting frequently to physical restraint, it said.
“Staff did not have the experience and skills to manage the complex needs of the young people on the wards,” Lelliott said, adding that NHS England had halted admissions to the hospital until further notice.
Kneesworth House, which is operated by a Priory subsidiary, Partnerships in Care, and treats people with mental illness and some with learning disabilities, was failed because of conditions on four forensic wards catering for men with offender backgrounds.
The wards were found to be dirty, with ripped furnishings, and patients complained that some staff were rude, unfriendly and used negative and derogatory language. On one ward, staff were said to wake patients by poking their bare feet.
“All of this is unacceptable and not what anyone should expect when receiving mental health care,” Lelliott said.
A spokesman for Priory said investment was under way at Kneesworth to improve the environment. Although it accepted the forensic wards had fallen below standard, it pointed out that the hospital’s acute and rehabilitation services, which treat the majority of patients, were rated “good”.
Immediate changes were being made at Blandford, the spokesman said. The unit had been unable to recruit nurses and clinicians with the skills needed to care for its complex patient group. “This reflects a national picture, with staffing problems particularly acute where sites are rural and services users require high levels of specialist input and round-the-clock care.”
